Thursday, September 22, 2005

What we need is a return to apprenticships and trade schools

I'm very serious. Frankly, it's either that, or start being honest about the education we offer in colleges because, despite all the lip service, it's not a liberal arts education. Extradisciplinary exposure is relagated to a few distribution courses that are taken to pad your GPA, and the one question that you will hear over and over (from students, teachers, parents and everyone else) is "What are you going to do with that major?" They mean, of course, what jobs will you be prepared for when you graduate. You see, one doesn't go to college to learn about history (unless one is a history major*), or music (unless one is a music major), or any science at all (unless one is, well, majoring in science, and to do that one really needs to have attended a special science and math magnet high school). But, see, you need to know TODAY what you want to do after college, because you won't learn anything else besides what is required for the job you want to do. And, really, you need to know what you want to DO. NOW!

This is the problem with conflating knowledge and education and job prospects. Colleges are marketed to parents as the way to open doors for their children. By doors they mean, specificlly, career-related options. Do I blame them? Goodness, no! Colleges know their market - middle class familes desperate to provide the best for thier children. What's best, of course, is a well-paying job, a late marriage (heavens, not before 30!), a few childless years (so you can enjoy being an adolecent for a little longer) and one or two children (maybe) by the time you're 40. Anything else would be a waste of a good education and thousands of dollars.

This sucks. It's fine if colleges want to market themselves into a trade school position, but I'd at least like them to be honest about it. This mentality is seeping into the lower-level schools as well. Music is marketed to parents as a way to raise SAT scores (and we all know what that means - a better college!). Four years of sciences are required not because they are essential to know, but because "colleges like to see it on your transcript".

You know why you should study music? Just for the sake of learning and because it is by doing so that you get closer to understanding the mysteries and joys of life. Why should you study math? For the sake of learning and because it is by doing so that you get closer to understanding the mysteries and joys of life.Why should you study language? For the sake of learning and because it is by doing so that you get closer to understanding the mysteries and joys of life.And. So. On.

A liberal arts education should be completely divorced from any mention of future career prospects. Career education is what trade schools are for. That's why you apprentice with experts. A career is not why you learn about the awesomeness that is Ovid.